Facebook Helps Find Long-Lost Brother

29 Dec 2009

Facebook has proven that it can not only help its users keep in touch, but can also reconnect users with family members who were feared long lost. A woman in Palu, Central Sulawesi, recently found her older brother, who had been missing for more than three decades, on the social networking site.

Nurlianti Dehi told Metro TV on Tuesday that she cried when she spoke with her brother, Anton Dehi, on the phone for the first time in 35 years. Nurlianti said she last saw her brother in 1974 when Anton, who was in his early 20s, left Palu to find a job in Manado, North Sulawesi.

For the first two years, Anton maintained good contact with his family back home, but in the third year Nurlianti and her family did not receive any news from him. She spent years trying to find Anton but to no avail. She finally gave up looking for him but said she had never forgotten him.

Hopes of finding her brother were sparked again when she heard about the online social network Facebook. Nurlianti, who runs a travel agency in her hometown, signed up on the Web site and began her quest. She looked for any Facebook members whose last names were Dehi and she got in touch with a girl named Risna Dehi, who turned out to be Anton’s daughter and her niece.

From Risna, Nurlianti found out that Anton and his family lived in Jombang, East Java. Finally, after more than three decades apart, the two siblings reconnected over the telephone.

Nurlanti said that she at first had doubts that the man was really her brother, but she was convinced after they swapped childhood stories. In the near future, Nurlianti will visit the long-lost Anton in Jombang.

The Jakarta Globe

Haiti Earthquake Aid Gets Big on Facebook

By now most people know that a catastrophic 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday. The reason people know is partly due to the ubiquity of Haiti-related posts, status updates and news stories on Facebook in the past few days. And now there’s a corresponding surge of interest in disaster relief sweeping the site.

Everyone seems to be getting in a word about Haiti on Facebook — from President Barack Obama to The New York Times to the Red Cross and Catholic Relief Services (Haiti is a largely Catholic country). Many of the updates individuals are posting every second on the service are soliciting donations to help the victims.

As with other disaster charities, it’s always a good policy to double-check which of these is reputable. Ultimately the best thing you can do to sort through them all is either use a search engine to confirm whether they are legitimate or rely on traditional aid organizations like the Red Cross or traditional media that have compiled lists of quality charities.

Haiti, which shares half an island with its neighbor the Dominican Republic, is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and this earthquake has done heavy damage to a Caribbean country that was poor to begin with and whose infrastructure was already incredibly lacking. The government currently estimates that the quake has killed more than 100,000 people.

The Causes application on Facebook joined in the effort via Oxfam America and had raised more than $10,000 dollars by midday Wednesday.

Two other fundraising campaigns appear to have gotten big on Facebook (and Twitter), both use texting to add the donation to your phone bill, from the Red Cross and Haitian musician Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti organization. Both organizations are soliciting donations via text messages adding either $10 or $5 to your phone bill.

Two Facebook groups have also been growing by leaps and bounds since Tuesday — Haitian Earthquake Relief and Haiti Needs Us, And We Need Haiti — where members share prayers, news, links to charity and other ways people can help. The aforementioned text-driven fundraisers are also heavily mentioned here, along with links to other charities.

UK Cops Use Facebook to Find Mother of Abandoned Lady

September 04, 2008

Police in the UK are using sites like Facebook and MySpace in hopes of finding the mother of an abandoned baby.

The baby's body was found at a recycling center. Police believe the mother is possibly a teen who kept the pregnancy secret hence the reason why they are using Facebook to find her.

The plant processes recyclable waste from the local area. The facility, which opened in 1997, is owned by Peterborough City Council operated by Viridor Waste Management Ltd.

A council spokesman told the Times of London last week: "The materials recycling facility will remain closed while police continue their investigation following the tragic discovery."

Staples use Facebook to help poor kids

In US, Staples, the office supply giant use Facebook in its efforts to help kids help kids. Of course there is a tremendous display of altruism here but let’s also remember the good business sense that a campaign such as this makes. This one is a win/win situation which is cool.

The office and school supplies retailer tapped New York agency Mr Youth to create a Do Something 101 Facebook page and an “Adopt a Pack ” Facebook application where participants can tag friends, virtually “fill” a backpack with school supplies, and then go to a Staples store t “o buy the supplies they selected and have them donated to other students who are living in poverty.

How is this good business? Let us count some of the ways:

1. Helping kids in poverty is a good thing all by itself
2. Helping kids in poverty is great PR for your brand
3. Helping kids to help kids in poverty is good for society
4. Helping kids who do have money to know your brand for something other than office supplies is just plain smart